Six More Weeks of Winter?

So the groundhog predicted on February 2nd…that gives us three weeks down and three weeks to go approximately in the northern hemisphere. It’s all so unpredictable these days. Like everything else in front of us, we’re going to know how much longer we have of winter when it happens. Forecasting is a strange sport.

We’ve had a long inward time…much longer than we anticipated. Another writer, K. DuMont, said

“Time introduces a new character to our lives each season,
one with a temperature and a temperament that affects our own.”

So, what has your temperament been like lately? People here are talking about covid fatigue. Someone asked me today how that expresses itself for me. I thought about it and found myself talking about the things that I miss…like the ease of movement, sitting in a café leisurely sharing time and tea with a friend, hugs. The incentive to clean my house used to be strong if I knew I was going to have company coming over. Now, who cares. A pile here, a pile there. Visits to my family five hours away have been curtailed. Another friend asked if I take fewer showers than I typically would. And, the last time I had a professional haircut was over one year ago. I’m weary of the limitations. And, with that, I have a lot to be grateful for although sometimes it’s hard to remember. Humans are social beings.

Each of us has our own particular tale to tell around this unprecedented time as I hear it being referred to. I inquire within…if these are the rules of the game, can I safely bend them or come up with a creative solution to alleviate the loneliness (I live alone)? Without knowing how much longer that we have to do this cautious dance in the world, is there something I can offer to myself to make it a little lighter? Is there some sort of community (yes, we are grateful for ZOOM–but then there is ZOOM Fatigue?) Is there some other way that we can create community for ourselves? I’m open for suggestions. Even if you’re an introvert, you miss the company of people. Don’t you?

I was invited to do a collaborative painting with another artist. I received a panel through the mail. The first artist had etched the design–there was an original from which she created her own unique expression. As the second artist in the collaboration, my part was to embellish it. Which I did, adding color, collage and using various techniques to try to render something compatible yet unique to me. I then mailed the panel to a local art council. They gather the panels from several other participating artists to create a mural. That’s one way to connect with others. Interesting, but not totally satisfying.

I am, by nature, introspective. However, prolonged introspection–urgh. Regardless, winter is considered the season for the inward journey. According to author, Jamie Sams, in the Native American tradition, the bear is the guardian of the west and winter, the season for introspection. She says that “…bear seeks honey or the sweetness of truth in the hollow of an old oak tree.”

Over the course of this long time with your own company and thoughts, is there a sweetness of truth that you have gleaned. One thing? More than one thing? Share it under comments here if you like or at least share it with one other person.

Ecology

Why is ecology important? Ecology is the basis for a state of one’s personal and global well-being. It recognizes the interdependence between people and nature (which includes us) that is vital for food production, maintaining clean air and water, and sustaining biodiversity especially notable during this time of climate change.

Why is biodiversity important? Each life form adds to an environment that works for many.

“Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. For example, A larger number of plant species means a greater variety of crops. Greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms.”

I might think I’m an independent person. But if I consider everything that sustains me…water, air, food, sunshine and how all those things are delivered to me…I’d soon realize how very dependent I am. Interdependence sounds better. But it can only be effective if I live in a reciprocal way. Not just taking things in…but giving back and sharing the bounty with others. And respecting and caring for the source, the resources.

Many humans seem to think that they stand outside their environment. I mean, they might live in a house or housing. They might have a garden or a few plants on a balcony. They might live in the city or a rural area. Yet, they often think that they are separate from their environment. That the effect of one on the other isn’t important. There is also the peculiar notion that nature has to be dominated and that “humans know best.”

I wonder how we awaken to this interdependence and the need for reciprocity. I wonder how corporate interests can continue to do irresponsible logging of tropical forests and fracking or dredging for oil. I wonder how they don’t seem to consider the ways that this is impacting the local wildlife, the indigenous peoples there. How it is drastically affecting climate change and that across this beautiful earth, we are all going to suffer for this irresponsibility. Neither the very poor nor the very wealthy, neither the ignorant nor the very wise, neither kings, queens nor presidents are going to be spared if we don’t gather our wits and understand this vital relationship soon.

A Delicate Balance

Recently, I watched a film produced by Patagonia–
The Refuge: Fighting For A Way Of Life.
The film illustrated the plight of the Gwich’in Nation of Alaska, specifically the area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

“The Gwich’in population is located in northeastern Alaska, the northern Yukon and Northwest
Territories of Canada. Known as ‘The Caribou People,’ the culture and life of the Gwich’in has
been based around the Porcupine Caribou herd for thousands of years. The Gwich’in peoples
have relied upon the caribou for food, shelter, clothing, tools and medicine. So intertwined with
the Porcupine Caribou herd, the Gwich’in have named the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge
“Iizhik Gwats’an Gwandaii Goodlit” which translates to ‘The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.’
The Coastal Plain is the destination of the Porcupine Caribou herd, which migrates to the Coastal
Plain each year to birth and raise their young. Not only does the life of the caribou begin on the
Coastal Plain, but it is also where the life of the Gwich’in nation is supported. The lives and
heritage of the Gwich’in are directly tied to the caribou herds – much like the Plains Indians
relied on the buffalo. Without a healthy caribou population, the Gwich’in culture would
struggle to survive.” from http://www.alaskawild.org/educate

****
This painting is my tribute to the Gwich’in Nation in recognition of their intricate and interdependent relationship with the Porcupine Caribou. In legislating, thereby allowing corporate oil moguls to exploit this sacred region, we are influencing climate change to our detriment. In saving this region from such exploitation, we are not only protecting the rights of the Gwich’in Nation, the Caribou and migrating birds, we are protecting the future of a healthy earth for generations to come.

Blog on Hiatus

Hi Everyone Who Reads My Blog…

I hope that you’ve appreciated my art, poetry and essays over these past five years. I’ve taken short breaks at times, but mostly I’ve been here. As a writer, it’s been a good thing for me to show up to this writing space daily.

Life is certainly giving us challenges by the truckload these days. Sometimes, there is the need for quiet contemplation and introspection. It’s been forced on many by social distancing and sheltering at home during the pandemic.

There is so much going on in the realm of politics. In the US, it consumes the media and our minds if we listen to it for very long. There is such a basis of fear in the way the media delivers the news. The most immediate concern to me is Climate Change. We are each individually and collectively affected by this across the planet. I don’t know what has to happen before humans begin to relate to the earth in a more reciprocal way. Heaven help us.

We have leaders, outside of politicians, to guide us in accommodating the changes we need to make in order to survive beyond the next twenty years. There are solutions that can be implemented now. These are covered quite effectively in this book edited by Paul Hawken, Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed To Reverse Global Warming. I might have mentioned this book in an earlier blog, but it bears repeating. My 25-year old granddaughter and her boyfriend were visiting recently. I handed the book to them to browse through. My granddaughter looked directly at me and said “I’m going to give this book as a gift to everyone that I know!”

It is a book that offers precise information about what we can do NOW to change course. It’s going to take strong leadership to do this. However, behind that leadership it’s going to take each and every person to line up across the earth. Forget the idea of different countries, cultures, religions, beliefs, skin colors, foreign languages–we need to unify to save our earth, which is saving ourselves and all the other amazing species in this one ecosystem.

Blessings to everyone

Christine
Mt. Shasta, CA, USA

Ocean in Abstract

abstractocean1

This abstract was done in a class with artist, Laly Mille. I divided the 9″x12″ 140# watercolor paper into four triangles. They can be cut into individual paintings if I so choose. When I look at this abstract painting today, I think I would leave it as an ocean study. In my thinking, abstract equals the artist’s impressions of a subject.

There are the colors that I’ve associated with the ocean. There is, perhaps, a horizon line. There could be rock formations not far from the shoreline. And there is definitely sky. With clouds. A mood is created.

When I present an abstract painting, I don’t like to discuss it very much. I like it to stand alone, to represent what it represents and to allow the viewer to be drawn into it and have their own interpretation. To encourage the viewer to fabricate a story around my impressions of the ocean.

The Backstory

The elephant shows up in my art more and more frequently. I’ve posted this mixed media painting from 2018 a few times. I don’t think that I mentioned the entire backstory for this piece.

I cut my little purple elephant from a photocopy of an earlier painting. Whimsical, right? But the actual photo of an elephant that I used as a model was an orphan in Dame Daphne Sheldrick’s Wildlife Refuge for traumatized baby elephants. Many of them were orphaned due to poachers taking down their mothers and harvesting the ivory tusks for profit. A very sad story that continues to this day!

I could see the trauma in the eyes of the little elephant. A glazed, dazed look of dread. For he had witnessed the violent death of his mother. And then, he was left to wander in this confused and fearful state until he was rescued by a helicopter team and brought to the sanctuary. Once there, it took these tender experts time to help him overcome the initial effects of the trauma. Gradually, he was integrated in with a group of older elephants to help him with further recovery…to the degree that he could recover.

Dame Daphne Sheldrick and her husband, David, started the shelter for orphaned animals, especially elephants, many years ago. He passed away in 1977 and Dame Daphne continued the trust in his name. She died in 2018. I wondered if the work that she and her husband had so passionately lived was being carried on. I am relieved to see that their daughter, Angela, who worked alongside her mother for twenty years, continues this heroic work with the help of her husband, their children and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust team. This is really a huge task as the poaching continues. It occurs to me (and to others) that if there wasn’t a market for ivory, then the elephants might have a chance. However, there is a market. How does one address such greed? I read recently that if someone is bragging to you about their ivory collection or even a trinket that they have…show them a few photos of whose life was taken to add ivory to their collection. In other words, shame them.

****
There are 415,000 elephants remaining in Africa. Recently 350 elephants died in Botswana. Cause unknown. So far, these deaths have not been connected to poaching–no tusks were removed. Elephants are deeply feeling animals. Some have said that they are mourning the loss of lives in their community. I can believe this to be true.

What are you feeling?

Things are scrambled. There is disorientation. My brother in San Francisco doesn’t drive. He relies on buses. The buses are running but it’s always a risk. Who else is going to be on the bus? What are their personal habits of cleanliness and responsibility towards others? He can’t get to his usual places to shop for the food he usually eats. He is eating more canned food. His health is suffering. He isn’t getting the exercise he normally gets. He lives alone, is a social being and feels cut off from his connections. His lifestyle has been severely curtailed. He lives minimally with a small carbon footprint. Even with that, this is rough.

After a recent conversation with him, I felt sad. I told him that he needed to eat healthy. That much he could do for himself. The stores where he usually shops are over-crowded making him less likely to shop there. I told him he could have fresh produce delivered. Regardless, he is down-hearted by everything that is going on right now. Living in San Francisco, he feels the impact more than I do where I live. Less freedom of motion. His is one story among many…one good reason for kindness towards one another.

This face came about from what I was feeling in the moment. The words that I wrote were:

There is so much that is going on that is challenging for many at this time. I wouldn’t know where to begin. An ongoing sadness and simultaneously, an awareness of the extreme beauty that surrounds us. Concern for self and family and community, the world–the earth. Humans haven’t lived softly on this planet. Why have we distanced from the earth who sustains us? There are so many questions hovering in the air. I like to think that where there’s a question, nearby is an answer. We have to pay attention–become conscious of the feedback that we are receiving from the earth and her other creatures. We aren’t alone in this. Why do we forget?

Then, yesterday, sitting in my tiny garden in the backyard, leaning into the uncertainty, a little hummingbird settled nearby, framed in a wire rectangle of the fenced enclosure. It visited for an indeterminate time and we studied one another. The rarity of such an experience always feels like an honoring.

This painting is a reminder to not run away from your feelings. As they arise, do acknowledge them, embrace them, sit with them, be patient with yourself through them. It is in this state of acceptance and bringing comfort to them that they are recognized and eased. Have you noticed that?

In the midst of uncertainty, some things feel right with the world. We look for those things.

Take good care.

Butterfly Offering

Butterfly

Once upon a time, I walked along a sandy beach, depressed and not clearly seeing the way through. The proprietor of the motel where I was staying happened upon me in this state of being. He said to me “We’re here this long,” gesturing a miniscule amount between his thumb and forefinger. “We’re as insignificant as a grain of sand on this beach, so enjoy your time here [on the planet].”

For me, in the moment, that was what I needed to hear to bolster myself. And, it was only part of the story.

I love the principle of the butterfly effect. “The Butterfly Effect” is not a thing in and of itself. It is just a metaphor for the principle of Chaos Theory.”

Following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:

The term is often ascribed to Edward Lorenz who wrote about it in a 1963 paper in the New York Academy of Sciences.”

“Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary theory stating that, within the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, there are underlying patterns, interconnectedness, constant feedback loops, repetition, self-similarity, fractals and self-organization. The butterfly effect, an underlying principle of chaos, describes how a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state (meaning that there is sensitive dependence on initial conditions). A metaphor for this behavior is that a butterfly flapping its wings in China can cause a hurricane in Texas.”

…In The Vocation of Man (1800), Johann Gottlieb Fichte says “you could not remove a single grain of sand from its place without thereby … changing something throughout all parts of the immeasurable whole”…

****
We are all looking for meaning to our lives, singly and collectively. That “a very small change in initial conditions [even from a far away location] had created a significantly different outcome,” gives me hope somehow. Considering the times that we are living in and that we cannot see the whole that is unfolding, how can we find comfort in considering The Butterfly Effect?

We cannot know the effect we have on others, on life, on weather patterns, planetary momentum, even politics. On a microcosmic level, was there someone along your life path who said just the right thing at the right time in a moment of your life where their words caught somewhere in your psyche and turned you around? Was there an action you took one day, that looking back, was pivotal in the whole of your life? And then, you cannot determine how a word you spoke or an action you took affected another person or perhaps a weather system. What is true for us personally, is true for the macrocosm.

Everything is connected in such an intricate way that it is hard for the mind to comprehend. It’s truly beyond logic and has been labelled quantum physics. To my way of seeing, that’s another term for mystery.

Mastery of Illusion

Art is that, the mastery of illusion. You’ve created a world on a canvas. Can you get your audience to believe it?

When I look at my paintings, I realize that this is exactly what I’m doing. I inhabit the canvas for awhile creating a story. Whether it’s from an actual photo or my imagination is irrelevant. In any painting that is being viewed, there is a sense of being transported. If you love where you go, if you have the purchasing power, if you deeply desire recreating this experience and the concurrent feeling again and again, you buy the painting and place it in your home or office where you can see it regularly and renew the feeling that you enjoy and the illusion that it implies.

In any painting, there are things that are left to the imagination. For example, I could paint a landscape and the viewer automatically extends the landscape beyond the canvas and sees more. If I decide to only draw or paint a portion of the human face, the viewer completes the face in their mind’s eye. When there is an imperfection, the human eye makes the correction in some way. It’s interesting to witness myself doing this and to consider that you, the viewer, also do this.

lost in the woods.final

The title of this painting is Lost in the Woods. The story is based in fact of a time when I was literally lost in the woods on the mountain. It’s also about the ways we get lost in our own inner worlds at times, in our thoughts, in our fears, in our own self-doubt. I created this illusion on a small substrate, a wood panel. Your imagination takes over when you see this piece and you add to the illusion or story that I’ve initiated. Can you find the three figures as she makes her way through the woods?

Fascinating that we embellish what we see, don’t you think? In your own life, in what other illusions are you participating?

Musings on What is Hard to Comprehend

how much longer

It’s hard to comprehend that a virus could be so powerful on so many levels. It makes people sick, it takes lives, it travels across continents, it halts the workforce, it stops education as we’ve known it, it damages economies–giant corporations and small businesses alike are affected, it creates arguments of politics around to wear or not to wear a mask (in America anyway). It separates families and friends. It brings inequities, injustices to light. It commands that we save the world with better choices as to how we use the world. On and on. I bet you can add to this list and that if we analyze the list we make, it seems that we could find good and not so good within it.

I appreciate the perspective that the virus is giving us feedback. That any response from the earth is feedback to us as a human species. Often we act dumb in the face of such feedback. Often we ignore it for as long as we are able to. Often we try to outsmart it or upgrade our technology or continue more forcefully in the direction that we’ve been going. Even while we see that’s not helping. In fact, proceeding as we have been is making things worse. However, we don’t seem to know how to stop and turn ourselves around.

Why is that?

Why do some people accept that wearing masks could halt the spread of the virus and adamantly wear their masks in public? Why do other people vehemently object to wearing a mask at all? What is the motivating force beneath each of these stances?

These days, I am fortunate to live in an area that isn’t highly populated. Although we are now getting tourists in the summer. And our numbers have increased accordingly.
I get out very early and shop for groceries–when I shop early, the store aisles feel a bit more spacious and I feel calm as I shop. This is one thing that I can do to lessen the intensity of these times. When I shop early, I’m in better shape over the course of the day. Returning home with my weekly groceries, as I handle each item, wipe it down or rinse it in a pan of water, I am tuning in more to the particular item. I give it attention that I might not otherwise–a type of gratitude. Hmmm. Interesting. I note this. I could consider it a big hassle and I have…but today, no, I’m grateful.

I also notice the accumulation of plastic bags…the ones that don’t break down in a landfill, the ones that end up choking the sea creatures that we conveniently forget have a life down there in the astonishing depths. What am I to do with these plastic bags? Isn’t there, I wonder, an alternative to plastic!!! How brilliant are we that we can’t come up with a solution here? Wouldn’t our minds be put to better use in learning and practicing how to harmonize with our planet in reciprocal and beneficial ways? Instead of strategizing war tactics or how to make it big in the stock market. Think of the jobs that would materialize if we put our heads together to make the world a better place for all creatures great and small and including the earth.

“You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one…” from a song that we all remember. The truth is, we need to proceed wisely in a better direction or we won’t be earning our keep here.